The present invention relates to a terminal box for electrotechnical uses and the like, and the corresponding method of manufacturing.
The use of terminal boxes is widely known and widespread in the electrotechnical field. Said terminal boxes are normally wall-mounted or mounted on equivalent supporting surfaces, and are designed for containing electrotechnical material, such as for example various electronic components, cables, connectors, wiring harnesses, etc., or even tools that can be used on site by an electrician for interventions of various nature, for example maintenance operations or modifications to existing wiring.
Currently, boxes of this type are available in a wide range of shapes and embodiments on account of the wide spectrum of applications, as well as of the need to meet, at least in some cases, specific national and international standards. For example, terminal boxes must usually guarantee that the internal environment, in which the material is housed will be as protected as possible from external factors, such as the introduction of dust, humidity, infiltration of water, and so forth. Said prerogatives become even more important and determining, for example, in the cases where the box is used in external environments, and/or also when it is necessary to guarantee perfect tightness of the internal space.
Other non-negligible aspects are represented by the need to have boxes presenting a structural rigidity and solidity adequate for the uses, as well as being suitable for facilitating interventions of operators, typically when it is necessary to carry out wiring within the boxes themselves.
Generally, the terminal boxes currently available on the market are constituted by a box like metal body having a parallelepiped al base, which delimits the space for housing the electrotechnical material, and a lid that is connected to the base itself so as to close the housing space.
In the current state of the art, the solutions adopted for construction of said boxes, in particular as regards the base, are not fully satisfactory. In fact, the embodiment most commonly and widely used envisages the use of one or more metal sheets that are first cut along defined traces, then bent, and finally welded along the lines of reciprocal connection of the side walls, or else joined along the same lines, for example by the adoption of particular forms of shaping of the edges of cut sheet metal to enable them to be slotted together or else by the application of joining pins. Said solutions may lead to the formation of imperfect joins, for example on account of the possible presence of holes in the joins or of irregularities in the welding beads, with possible problems from the standpoint of tightness and of the protection of the internal housing space from the external environment, or may simply create difficulties purely as regards manageability of the box. Furthermore, a number of production steps are required, with the intervention of specialized staff or automated machinery, for example shearing machines and welding robots. Another delicate aspect, and one that is not always satisfactorily dealt with in the solutions of a known type, regards the coupling between the closing lid and the base, which must obviously be as simple as possible and at the same time ensuring complete tightness. Finally, to guarantee structural strength recourse is almost always had to the adoption of sheet metal of a thickness larger than what is necessary or to the adoption of strengthening plates set in positions corresponding to the lateral sharp edges of the base.